On Saturday, January 28th, Boys to Men Mentoring tried for the second time to break a World Record with our event for the history books – the 1 Wave Challenge! Gathered at La Jolla Shores and divided into teams by different colored rash guards, 136 registered surfers hit the water in an attempt to break the current World Record for most surfers on a single wave at one time. This was an amazing show of teamwork, great communication, and leadership under the watchful eyes of the Event Judge, Eric “Bird” Huffman, of the historic Bird’s Surf Shed on Morena Boulevard.
We also hosted a companion event to the 1 Wave Challenge called the Torrey Pines Adventure Run, coordinated by our friends at Easy Day Sports. This beautiful 5-mile path led runners across various terrains and through some surprising patches, living up to the title “Adventure Run” in every way! As a reward for their endurance, runners were met with some breathtaking views along the path out and back from La Jolla Shores to the back fence of the iconic Torrey Pines Golf Course.
These two events being held in conjunction was a huge goal, especially considering the complex requirements needed to verify a World Record and the number of impartial judges, spotters, proctors, photographers and videographers needed to pull off this event as well! Despite the most valiant efforts of our surfers, we fell short (by only 8 surfers!) of breaking the standing World Record at the 1 Wave Challenge.
With another generous Title Sponsorship by the pride of north county, Dr. Bronner’s, the 1 Wave Challenge teed off the closing weekend of the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open Golf Tournament and opened the door for many new relationships with other sponsors and donors. The value of these connections is immeasurable in terms of media coverage and creating familiarity for the public with Boys to Men Mentoring.
Our entire team of dozens of volunteers and BTM staff came together to make magic happen that day, though, and we could not possibly be more proud of our community for stepping up to the challenge! We may not have set a World Record that day, but we definitely made history for Boys to Men and we are counting down the days until we can do it all again in January 2018!
